Ok I am a recruited athlete to a d3 school for swimming and have applied ED this year (waiting for december 15th). I am not an expert at college sports recruiting but I am noticing some D3 swimmers already committing to their schools on the collegeswimming.com website. I thought only D1 schools have verbal commitment and that D1 recruits have an early say whether they got in or not…So im a bit confused why D3 recruits (swimmers) are already committed to their schools (e.g. tufts, uchicago, johns hopkins) when the admission decisions did not even came out yet… any thoughts?
I am actually surprised to see these commits too. And I think they are a bit prematurely done.
At our club, no one announced their D3 commitment yet and all the commits so far are from D1s.
Good luck! ?
Generally, A verbal commit is based on what a coach told the athlete, pending admissions committee agreeing. These verbal commits typically have pre-read from admissions office.
I agree that the students who publicize their verbal commits are jumping the gun, whether it’s DI, II or III. We know that for some recruits, they end up not getting accepted, or things don’t work out for a long list of reasons.
Some DIII recruits do make a verbal commit or ‘commit to the admissions process’ at X college, usually after a positive admissions pre-read.
I am also not a fan of top recruits (mostly happens in football and basketball) tweeting out every single offer they receive…I mean really, they can only attend one school.
Good luck to you OP, I know it’s a long wait.
There are kids on our soccer team who are “going to X Div3 school.” You are correct that they don’t know for sure but they applied ED and were told by the coach that if they applied ED they would be accepted. It is my understanding that the coach can say this with near certainty for some candidates. None of the kids I know are tweeting it though.
Were you told by the coach that you would be accepted ED?
Although some coaches might say this, they certainly should not, nor would admissions approve of that at any school I am familiar with. The final say is by the adcoms, and once ED decisions come in, CC will have posts by recruits who were denied or deferred. Note I am not talking about DI/II recruits who signed an NLI.
The first day any athlete for D1 or D2 can sign a commitment is tomorrow, Nov 13. Until they sign, all are only verbal commitments, which mean nothing. Some may have been accepted to their schools but not all have.
However, many kids in all different sports and divisions announce that they have committed to their schools. Some used to do it as early as freshman year. Most sports have stopped that and offers can’t be made until Junior year, but those are announced asap.
If you want to announce, do it. If you don’t, don’t. Most will go to the schools they announce but a few won’t be accepted and will announce another commitment to another school. It’s not a big deal.
wow that is a risky move.
Not really. Recruits have been doing it for years. When lax recruits could commit as sophomores and even freshmen, there were thousands who listed their commitments publicly before junior year, many before they’d even taken an SAT test. If things didn’t work out, they just moved on to another school. Even the Ivies listed recruits long before likely letters could be issued. The service academies had tons of recruits listed and they hadn’t received appointments yet.
It also didn’t stop other coaches, especially D3 coaches, from going after those recruits. My daughter got calls from D3 coaches after she’d signed her NLI and they all started with “You know you don’t HAVE to go to the school you signed with…you can play for us immediately.” No honor among thieves.
According to swimswam, on the NLI signing day today, at least one D3 school has one signer, that swimmer is signing a NLI for Johns Hopskins. The only D3 swimmer so far in the database I have seen so far.
My D was a D3 bball recruit 2 years ago. Many of her team mates announced what D3 school they had committed to before the Dec acceptance. Although the risk of not getting in was low, my D never announced where she was going before she got the letter in Dec.
D3 recruits do not sign NLIs, but many high schools allow D3 recruits to participate in signing ceremonies…even though they aren’t signing an NLI.
Many D3 recruits wait until their High school’s spring signing ceremony to participate in the celebration, after they have their acceptances in hand (if they were accepted!)
Wait so if a coach said he is confident that i will get in with coaches support, should i verbally commit? I know one case where a guy verbally commited to an ivy league school for swim yet he got denied at the end (now swimming for anothet d1 school)
Actually nevermind i will just wait until the actual decision comes out
Our school let everyone ‘sign’ at the ceremony - D3, junior college, Ivy league, Naval academy. I’m not sure anyone was really ‘signing’ at the ceremony which was held in April and most of the D1 and D2 kids had signed the actual NLI months earlier.
Lots of fun. Lots of cupcakes and balloons.
Same at our school. With continuous NLI signing, last year’s spring signing was larger than fall’s (and yes most DI/II students had actually signed by then). The spring signing ceremony also included many of the Ivy/D3 students who didn’t want to participate in the fall, before they received their acceptances.
My son was given full support by his NESCAC coach, who indicated no recruit with this level of support and positive pre-read had ever been rejected. Nonetheless, he advised my son to refrain from announcing his commitment until officially admitted ED in December.
This year, a recruit for my son’s team posted his commitment on a recruiting board in October… and one hour later, it was removed from the website. I’m sure the coach advised him to wait until formal admissions were announced in December.
Like others, my son then celebrated his commitment at the high school signing ceremony in spring… which was great fun (even if there is no official “signing” in DIII).
Exactly.
It all sounds good though. Come back and tell us when you are admitted!
Some D3 admissions departments will send letters with merit aid and admissions info following a solid preread. My athlete received a few of these and we understood them to mean that in lieu of significant changes to the data provided the athlete is in and will get at least $x.00.
My son’s friend was asked to post a d3 announcement pre acceptance for lacrosse after he committed to apply ED1 with coaches support. Which he did.
My son did by choice too but he had accepted a likely letter.